I couldn’t get my kids to go hiking with me this week, but the agreed to join me biking along the Charles River. This is closer to home than some of our other pandemic field trips, but it definitely counts.
We have a checkered history with big family bike rides. Mainly, Twin S has a history of getting flat tires (including on the Via Appia Antica in Rome and the Lido di Venezia and the Dequindre Cut in Detroit). Most recently, we planned to commemorate Patriot’s Day with a family bike ride to Lexington on the Minute Man Bikeway. Daddio drove the boys and their bikes to the trailhead, only to discover that S had a flat tire before we even started! Sure makes you wonder what that kid did to a bicycle in a previous life.
Anyway, the twins have been riding bikes around the neighborhood a LOT (and we even planned a birthday bike parade when they turned 10 last month). Traffic is lighter than usual these days. So it seemed like a good opportunity to venture out and do some biking along the Charles River. Years ago, we used to ride along Memorial Drive. But it’s only recently that we mustered the energy (or courage) to ride all the way to the Charles River Esplanade.
Thanks to the gorgeous newish bike path on Western Ave in Cambridge, it’s a pleasant and safe ride from our house down to the river. Getting back is not quite as easy, but still manageable. It was about 10 miles round trip, which gave the twins quite a sense of accomplishment.
Best of all, in the freezer at home we had a batch of homemade mint ice cream. This, we relished while celebrating that our ride was blissfully free of flat tires. Oorah!